3: Mark Twain began his life as a printer and newspsper reporter. Shortly after, he began writing. HIs most famous novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has been known as "the great American novel. His works are known for their wit and satire. | He was a prolific writer, touching upon social issues, and his most famous book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn been banned off and on due to it's course-ness and its launguage. Ernest Hemmingway said that "It is the one book rom which all modern American came," and it has been treated as such.

4: Langston Hughes 1902-1967

5: Langston Hughes is said to be one of the most important poets and writers of the Harlem Renaissance. He celebrated his African American heritage in his writings. He was also known to write plays and short stories. His works were inspired by jazz and blues of that era. He won an award for his novel, Not Without Laughter, and I Wander As I | Wander. His works illustrated racial consciousness and cultural nationalism that was said to influence many other black writers.

6: Ernest Hemingway 1899-1961

7: Ernest Hemingway's novels were written largely from his personal experiences. They dealt with topics involving war, women, and places that he traveled to. He is most famous for his books, The Old Man and the Sea, A Farewell to Arms, and For Whom the Bell Tolls. He won a Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea. | is novels are revered as basic classics in American literature, and because of this, he won a Nobel Prize in literature.

8: Edgar Allen Poe 1809-1849

9: Edgar Allen Poe was known as the master of the gothic/romantic peroid. He is best known for his poems and short stories, "The Tell-tale Heart," amd "The Raven." Dark writing such as this had never been seen before. They included topics such as the macabre and mystery. He is considered to be | the pioneer of the detective-fiction novels and a major contributor to the field of science fiction writing. | the pioneer of the detective-fiction novels and a major contributor to the field of science fiction writing.

10: F. Scott Fitzgerald 1896-1940

11: F. Scott Fitzgerald began his writing career working for the Saturday Evening Post. He was a social historian who coined the term "Jazz Age." He wrote novels and short stories about youth and promise and then despair and age. He is best known for his novel The Great Gatsby which is revered today as a classic. Parts of this are | known to mirror his own life. He died considering himself a failure.

12: Alice Walker 1944- present

13: Alice Walker is best known for her Pulitzer prize-winning novel that was made into a movie, The Color Purple. Her novels portray the life of an African American woman. They often deal with tough issues like racism, sexism, poverty, voilence, rape, and isolation. She has been criticized for for being negative towards men in her writing. | writing. Walker has coined the term "womanist," which means African American Feminism.

14: Emily Dickinson 1830-1886

15: Emily Dickinson is known for book of poems, Poems of Emily Dickinson that was published many years after her death. Of the 1,800 poems that she wrote, she had less than a dozen published during her lifetime. She was known to be both eccentric and private and her poetry was unconventional for the time. The subjects dealt with death and | immortality and were often edited due to the lack of titles, short lines, slant rhymes, and odd capitalization and puncuation. Today she is known as a major American poet.

16: Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882

17: Ralph Waldo Emerson is recognized as the father of Trancendentalism. He is known to be a philosopher, an essayist, and a poet. He was a popular writer although his idea were abstract an difficult. Emerson was a great orator and known for his radicalism and independant ideaa. He was best known for his essay entitled Nature. Some of his essays | are considered to be in the best 100 books of all time. | Ralph Waldo Emerson is recognized as the father of Trancendentalism. He is known to be a philosopher, an essayist, and a poet. He was a popular writer although his idea were abstract an difficult. Emerson was a great orator and known for his radicalism and independant ideaa. He was best known for his essay entitled Nature. Some of his essays | are considered to be in the best 100 books of all time.

18: Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) 1904-1991

19: Dr. Seuss began as a cartoonist and illustrator but decided to write children's books. His best known book, "Cat in the Hat," was the catalyst to his career of writing books to teach children how to read. He received many awards for his work including a Pulitzer prize, Caldecott honor awards, and a Laura Ingalls Wilder award. | Many of his books have been made in to movies for children. At his death, over 200 million copies of his books were sold in 15 lauguages. He has been the quintessencial author in teaching children to read through his whimsical illustrations and stories.

20: Margaret Mitchell 1900-1949

21: Margaret Mitchell began her career as a writer for the Atlanta Journal. She is known for writing the most popular novel of all time while she was in bed with a broken foot. Gone With the Wind is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel based on the civil war and dramatic moments from her life. This novel sold 30 million copies and was second in sales next to the Bible. | This was made into a film and was the highest grossing with a record breaking number of Academy Awards.